Year 12 major work supports Mary’s House

Charles Tang has designed a sports singlet for Design Technology that aims to raise awareness of domestic violence. He writes about his creative process and the meaning behind his finished design.

By Charles Tang, Year 12 2018

For Year 12 I elected to do Design Technology, which has a major work component. For the major work I had to design and create a concept that aims to solve an issue, as well as complete an 80 page portfolio, regarding the design process and manufacturing.

For my major, I decided to make a graphic design sports singlet, aimed at raising awareness for domestic violence. To create the singlet, I designed six preliminary sketches and then chose three of the designs to go forward with. To generate the graphic designs, I then used a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator.

After I selected the best design of these three, I manipulated the design into a singlet template, which had the stitching patterns, measurements, etc. I researched a range of printing methods, materials and manufacturing businesses that could potentially print my singlet using sublimation printing.

The birds of paradise design which I developed has a range of contextual meanings:

The birds of paradise represent the untold story of marriage: the issue of domestic violence is constantly overlooked and ignored.

The repeated pattern of the birds of paradise represents the mass scale on which domestic violence occurs.

The colours used in creating the birds a paradise are the colouring stages of bruising. This represents the physical violence often experienced in domestic violence.

The one in three, with the figure of a woman replacing the one showcases how one in three women in their life time will experience some form of domestic violence or sexual assault.

I chose a sports singlet to print my design on to represent muscle and men – the frequent perpetrators of domestic violence. The two concepts are bought together to say that yes I am a man and I enjoy exercise, but I do not condone the acts of domestic violence.